Case Scenario

The CEO of Joy Foods has approached you for advice. Joy Foods is opening a pilot French bakery in your neighborhood. Originally a European brand, they are well-known for their fresh produce. They plan to procure all raw materials and equipment for the bakery via e-commerce websites. The staff in India will be using the suggested e-commerce website to order the daily requirements. But the staff has very limited time and are not very technology-savvy. The Operations Head also informs you that Joy Foods has huge capital tied up in their brick-and-mortar setup, and some of the raw materials they plan to procure can only be sourced from outside India (for e.g., UK, US, etc.).

Problem Statement 1:

Using a simple framework, complete a comparative analysis of the below e-commerce websites:

Solution:

Solution to Problem Statement 1:

Solution to Problem Statement 2:

For any business to run smoothly, it is imperative for the managers to understand the importance of setting up metrics that help in identifying whether a business is headed towards the sky or a gorge. For a French bakery business, these metrics become of even more importance considering the perishable nature of the produce.

To help the business managers identify the trend, the following performance indicators can be used:

a. Gradual increase in sales:

A for-profit business requires that the sales must always be on an increasing trend. According to Small Business, an annual increase of 30% is a decent sales target.

b. Repeat customers with repeat orders aka consistent footfall:

For a bakery business to identify itself as successful bakery, it is important that the customers come relate themselves to a specific product and come back to the bakery often for their “regular” order apart from trying newer items.

c. Turn-around time for the product – lesser time on shelf indicates a better sales strategy:

Products being produced in a bakery should be cleared off the shelf prior to their expiry. Such a strategy determines that there is no extra produce and that the bakery is up to date on the daily requirement of fresh stock. A product that is being thrown out as waste due to expiry suggests excess production; and may need intervention on the marketing aspect of the product.

d. Ability to keep up with the demand by keeping enough stock:

No bakery must ever run out of stock for an in-demand produce. This key performance indicator is necessary to understand the supply-demand structure for each product category and to ensure that the customer does not end up dissatisfied due to lack of supply.

e. Quality benchmarking:

One aspect that keeps a customer coming back to the bakery is the quality of the produce. Quality benchmarks are a vital part of any business to ensure that a negative marketing does not take place. Bakery business being close to a consumer’s heart require stringent quality checks in place to ensure that each batch of produce matches or exceeds the set quality benchmarks.

That being said – a bakery business may also have issues like system downtime and lack of understanding of customer requirements. Equal emphasis must also be put on operational and human resource function to keep the business sturdy. Poorly trained workers or unkempt and non-maintained machinery can add to the costs rather than support the production side of the business to boost profits. No business is ever immune to problems and that is where performance indices help keep a track of all the bottlenecks and provide for a timely intervention.

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From managing people’s hobbies, to handling businesses, to building brands and generating content, to managing finances – at one point of time, I have done it all.